The present original composition was prompted by a remark made by George Warren in Soundboard (III/4, November 1976), in a feature review discussing Frederick Noad’s facsimile edition of music by Sor, suggesting that Sor’s Gran Solo Op. 14 may be related to the missing one-movement Concertante for guitar and strings by Sor. The composer does not posit that this work is in any way related to the history of the original Concertante.

Angelo Gilardino was born in 1941 in Vercelli, Italy. He received his early musical education in guitar, cello and composition in the local music school in Vercelli. New compositions dedicated to him by composers from all the world, and premiered by him, number in hundreds. Since 1967 Gilardino directs the Edizioni Musicali Bèrben series of twentieth century guitar music series, perhaps the leading series of its kind worldwide. Important parts of his compositional output are the collection of the sixty Studi di virtuosità e di trascendenza, two Sonatas, the Variazioni sulla Follia, the Variazioni sulla Fortuna, the Musica per l’angelo della Melancholia Suite, all for guitar solo and four Concertos for guitar and various chamber ensembles. His works are regularly performed in concert, recorded and featured as test pieces in competitions. He has given more than 200 courses, seminars and master-classes in various European countries, invited by universities, academies, conservatories and festivals. In 1997, he has been appointed as the artistic director of the “Andrés Segovia” Foundation of Linares, Spain.